Homework and Practice

The use of homework has been a “hot potato” issue in schools for many years. Some schools start it at an early age, while others have outlawed it even for high school students. Some schools that used to require homework have given up on it because students simply do not do it. This is particularly true in urban high schools or schools that find their students engaged in sports, jobs, or other activities, and these students are often not getting home until 10:00 pm at night. No wonder their homework does not get finished. Yet in some other schools, where parents are quite active and demand more rigorous standards, schools and teachers feel pressured to provide homework for their children.

Research in our text has stated that the amount of homework should increase as students’ progress through the grades. It was discovered that the involvement of parents should be kept to a minimum; and that the purpose of homework should be clearly defined and articulated to both students and parents. In addition, if homework is assigned, comments should be made to the students on their work.

Answer the questions below in four to five paragraphs:

• Does your school/district have a homework policy? Is it communicated to parents and students?
• Are your school’s homework assignments clearly described as to their purpose and outcomes?
• Are students given feedback on their homework?
• After reading the chapter in our text on Homework and Practice, (pp. 100-116 60-71), what are your personal feelings on homework and practice? Did this chapter in our textbook change or support your opinions and why?

Support your statements with evidence from the required studies and your research. Cite and reference your sources in APA style.

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Required Studies

The following materials are required studies for this week. Complete these studies at the beginning of the week and save these weekly materials for future use.

Classroom Instruction that Works (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone, 2012)

• Chapter 2: Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
• Chapter 3: Cooperative Learning
• Chapter 4: Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers
• Chapter 5: Nonlinguistic Representations
• Chapter 6: Summarizing and Note Taking
• Chapter 7: Assigning Homework and Providing Practice
• Chapter 9: Generating and Testing Hypotheses

Read

• Incentivizing Attendance Should We Reward Kids for Coming to School? (Attendance Works, 2010) [Web page]

View

• Superintendent’s Zone Schools • Essential Supports of Effective Schools – Draft v1 (Wieser, 2012) [Video]

Recommended Studies

Education Northwest. (n.d.). Creating strong schools and communities. Retrieved from http://educationnorthwest.org/